Bench-Warming Warner Keeps Sucking Up To God



St. Louis Rams QB Kurt Warner continues to invoke the Big Guy when talking about his career woes. From Baptist Press.com :

The former Arena League star from a tiny Iowa town said the 2003 season -- in which he was benched after the first game, never regained his job and watched the Rams fall short in the NFL playoffs -- taught him more about his faith in Jesus Christ than any of his Super Bowl highs.

"You want to say, 'God, how could You allow this to happen?'" he said. "I thought I was over the fact of being a backup. It was such a shock, but God has allowed me to use this greater platform for Him.

"If you can stand up for your faith when you're on top, you can stand up for it now that you're at the bottom," Warner said.

Before departing for the Super Bowl as a spectator, Warner said he is uncertain about his 2004 future with the Rams but is determined to honor God in all that he does.

"You have to keep your eyes on the prize," he said. "You have to finish strong. That's what I want to do and that's what [most of us] do in life as on the football field."

Warner said the pain of the 2003 season, in which he was benched after a blizzard of opening-game interceptions and fumbles and later only appeared for brief mop-up duties, was magnified by what others on the team said about him and his faith.

"I actually had [Rams] coaches say I was reading the Bible too much and it was taking away from my play," he said. "It was OK when we were winning, but now I was [messing] this thing up? People were saying I had lost my job because of my faith."

Warner said only his faith in God, which he credits his wife for introducing him to soon after they met in the mid-1990s, allowed him to see what New England's Tom Brady and Carolina's Jake Delhomme were going through.

"I love Super Bowl Sunday. I remember it very vividly because there was no more practice, no more media, and you just focus on playing the perfect game," Warner said.

According to much of the sporting world, Warner played that perfect game in the 2000 Super Bowl, throwing for 414 yards, winning the MVP trophy and leading his team to their first-ever Super Bowl title.

"We were talking in our [team] Bible study about how we were going to honor God if we got to that final game. When I was on that stage after the game and I was asked first about a touchdown pass, I just said first things first, 'Thank you Jesus.'"

Rams coach Mike Martz, had the following response for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kathleen Nelson.

"That's so far off the wall, it's incomprehensible," Martz said when reached out of town. "I can't imagine Kurt saying that. Nothing could be further from the truth. If he said that, it's a bald-faced lie. I'm just tired of dealing with this type of behavior."

Far be it for CSTB to mock someone else's belief system --- Christ, Satan, Santa Claus, it's all good around here. But Kurt's sense of perspective is truly fucked. First of all, someone being paid $5.3 in base salary for holding a clipboard really needs to check himself if he thinks he's hit "the bottom". Secondly, if there is a Higher Power, He, She or It doesn't give a hoot about who starts at QB for St. Louis. File-sharing, box office grosses for this week's films, the Kobe Bryant trial....these are the things that G-d is obsessed with.



(Brenda and Kurt, watching Christ come down the chimney)

Posted: Thu - February 5, 2004 at 03:41 PM      

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